The US is one of the world’s largest food producers. Thanks to the size of the country and the wide rage of climates we have, it’s possible to grow almost any crop here.
From beef, chicken and vegetables to the vast wheat fields of the Great Plains, we produce vast amounts of food. Yes, the US imports around 20% of the food we eat – but we’re also one of the world’s largest food exporters.
American agriculture produces more than enough to feed us all. So there’s little chance of the country facing a sudden food crisis, right?
Don’t be too sure about that. Crops can fail. Most modern crops are bred – or engineered – to be disease-resistant, but as we all learned in 2020 new diseases can appear out of nowhere without warning (or out of a Chinese lab, anyway).
The downside of modern crops is that we have whole farming industries dominated by just one or two varieties, so a new wheat disease, for example, could have devastating effects. Other crops are just as vulnerable.
Then there’s the risk of a bad actor deliberately sabotaging agricultural production. The biggest owner of farmland in the US is now Bill Gates, and he’s been saying some worrying things about overpopulation and experimenting with new kinds of food. Is he someone you’d trust with owning a significant part of our food production?
If Gates isn’t bad enough, investors linked to the Chinese Communist Party are also buying American farms. In at least one case they bought land near a vital Air Force base – but they could also use Chinese-controlled farms to launch a disease targeted at our food supply, perhaps to distract us from an invasion of Taiwan. (Source)
Crops don’t even need to fail for there to be a food crisis. What if they just get left to rot in the fields?
We’re an advanced, industrialized society, and most of the food we eat isn’t grown locally.
Related: 10 Survival Crops You Can Grow Without Irrigation
A transport crisis, another pandemic lockdown or even a big enough spike in fuel prices could bring down the complicated distribution networks we rely on and leave people starving while the birds pick over abandoned fields of food.
So while the US has plenty of food right now, that could change suddenly. If it does, you need to be prepared.
Looking for Land
Most preppers aim at being self-sufficient in food. Hunting and foraging are always options, but the best way to guarantee you’ll have enough to eat in a crisis is farming. It was agriculture that made human civilization possible and it’s still the best way to feed people.
The problem is that many of us don’t have enough land to grow enough food. As a rough guide, one acre will keep one person fed. If you have a family of four you’ll need four acres to be self-sufficient. If you don’t have that much land, look for space nearby you could farm in a crisis.
Once the initial chaos dies down there’s a good chance you’ll be able to repurpose some land and grow crops on it – but that needs preparation.
Firstly, if you take over part of a park or sports ground and dig it up for vegetables, can you protect whatever you grow there?
In a food crisis, hungry people will want that food – and they’ll take it, unless you can stop them. Do you have the manpower to keep a guard on it? Can you fence it off, or conceal it?
Securing Suitable Land
Land that adjoins your own property is the easiest to use. If your neighbors leave during the crisis, their yards become available.
The key thing is to identify suitable land before a crisis, and make sure you have the resources you need to secure and use it. If you can, check the soil too.
If you’re planning on using a vacant lot behind your yard, you can assume the soil will be pretty much the same as it is on your property, but if you’re planning to farm further afield it’s worth doing some research.
Look at soil quality, drainage and of course access. You can learn here an easy way to test soil the way pioneers did. If you plant an acre of potatoes in a clearing in the woods, will you be able to get a truck in there to take the crop home?
Whether you already have enough land or you’ve identified some you can farm in an emergency, you’ll need seeds to plant and possibly fertilizer to improve the soil. You can’t rely on finding those after food shortages begin, because a lot of people will suddenly be interested in growing their own.
Stockpiling Seeds and Supplies
Stockpiling seeds and other agricultural supplies is something you need to focus on now.
When choosing seeds, try to get several different varieties for each crop.
That reduces the risk of a disease or pest wiping everything out.
Make sure seeds are stored properly, too. Store them somewhere cool, dark and dry, ideally in an airtight container. That will keep them in good condition until you need them.
While stockpiling vegetables seeds seems like the obvious step when preparing for a food crisis, I strongly recommend stockpiling some medicinal seeds as well. You can get them for cheap and grow your own supply of natural remedies.
As well as land you can farm, look for other food sources you can exploit in a crisis. If you live near the coast, consider a small boat you can fish from – and if you’re near a river make up longlines, so instead of sitting by the bank dangling a hook in the water you can leave a hundred hooks out overnight and check them in the morning.
Hunting and foraging can still be valuable, but with food scarce a lot of other people will be trying them too, so you could struggle to survive on them alone. Keep them in mind, but look for options that the hungry masses won’t swamp before you can get there.
Bridging The Gap
Even if you’re prepared to become self-sufficient in food, you’ll still need enough reserves to get you through until your crops are ready.
If you’re self-sufficient already you’re probably covered; you’ll have last year’s harvest stored away and ready to feed you all year.
Otherwise, check your stockpile; is it really enough to last until you have a crop grown and ready to harvest?
Remember that any real food crisis will probably be preceded by shortages and rising prices, so it won’t be easy to expand your reserves at that point. You need to start thinking about that now.
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In Europe (and in my country) governments are actually sabotaging agricultural production by paying farmers to stop cultivating their fields. Another man-made crisis is coming.
Ya they are doing the same thing here on this web site. Sabotage your post, by deleting it.
They don’t give a shit about anything any more.
Welcome to the weak america.
This website has a woke AI agenda then 5 years ago.
The Switzerland climate change meeting of self important jerks that fly on private carbon polluting jets are no different in lying. Rules for thee but not for me. The UN wants everyone to eat bugs while they eat steak, lobster and potatoes, you don’t. Americans throw down your guns and worship the corrupt UN pedo****es who r*pe, k**l people who get in the way of their pleasures.
That pretty much sums it up.
All those secret society clubs are nothing more than elitist to plan the next year on what to tell the Gullible Sheeple, the unwashed masses of hopelessness:)
Presidents like Obama belongs to them, pretty much most of them and the unelected bureaucrats all push the same garbage upon us.
Lobsters are actually bug too.
And don’t knock bug-eating. They did it in the Bible and God gave commandments as to which bugs are good to eat versus those which are not good to eat.
Stop letting paranoid Reichwing “news” sites tell you what to believe.
World Wars start in Europe and stupid socialism laws start in California.
To heel with the illegals in America, send them home now, Let’s Go Brandon!
Save Texas build the barbwire fence and really build the border wall, screw the elitist Bidenomics!
Watch the post will be deleted in days 1/26/2024/
Hey or hay billgates, are you planning to sell your American farmland to the UN or China?
Elites must fudge up this country real soon before Biden gets out office.
Talk is CA gov Newscum or Michelle Obummer are being considered for the Demoncrat nominees for president in 2024, are they kidding?
Doing the same here is the US!
“A video of New York congresswoman Yvette Clarke (D) saying that these migrants are great. She can use them to “redistrict” – meaning she can secure a larger Democrat voting bloc because there will be more people in the area they will get more congressional seats once the census happens.
Nearly all migrants are moving to Democratic cities, too. This is the obvious, surface-level conspiracy behind allowing mass illegal immigration to occur and sponsoring it.”
A ‘study’ from the University of Michigan came out saying that back yard gardening produces a bigger carbon footprint (5-6 times) than conventional farming. But they don’t explain what conventional farming is. Also, once you start reading into it there are a number of exceptions that supposedly are the same or less.
So we can see where all this is going……
Quit voting for liberal Demoncrats period. Those conservatives stayed home and didn’t vote for Trump. He told you all what would happen if Bidenomics got to be president!
Don’t mess with TEXAS, 25 States agree with Texas, arrest them illegals, deport, deport. The FEDS want to cut the wire and Texas don’t, Obama, Biden the great dividers of Americans. Texas vs the Feds, the rest of the country can help kick the Feds out that help the illegals who are not welcomed anywhere in the USA.
Why should illegals get to jump the line to becoming a citizen of the USA? The VA hospitals are giving taxpayer’s money funded doctors to care for illegals than the American vets get second place.
Build the border wall ASAP!
Turn in an illegal’s head the IRS gives the citizen at least $500.00 dollars off their income taxes for the year up to 10 heads per customer.
Like the federal government did back in the buffalo hunting days of the old west.
The radical MI governor Witless hates Americans trying to survive the political nonsense she has created in her State of chaos. She probably had something to do with that report. How’s FLINT, MI, doing for water?
The lunatic liberals have taken over all the universities to indoctrinate their climate change religion.
pay off your debt
stop the credit cycle
get off the grid
dont support anything the gov promotes
and protect your ass sets
due to inpending take down, take over , totally koas
you will see just what control is
Internet is sensored, controlled, and set up for collapse as is coming
one thing to pay attention to is
Massive invasion and on purpose , for failure , so you will beg for help
when this happens , they the thieves, criminals, anti God hate creeps
Total anarchy
so how much food will matter when they are breaking down the doors to get all you have and move on like vultures, snakes, roachs , pest
Dont Tell , dont speak of what you have , dont flaunt your wealth
you better act like you own nothing so they dont come after yours
When it finally hits the fan, I’d like to see Bill Gates try to defend all his land when the rest of us take out the guards and take back the land by force!
Ownership is simply a piece of paper that can be burnt out of existence.
Computer records can be eliminated with a powerful magnet.
I am surprised nobody has eliminated the so-called “elite problem people” yet.
There are more of us than there are of them by a long shot!
All we need is someone with the backbone (and sniper rifle) that cares more about our children’s future than the big-money morons that make life hell for everyone else!
You sound like liberal in reverse of what is going on in America.
Those elites already sold your country out, how do you think your getting the country back?
God is still in control!! There is a change coming!
I find that ammo cans are perfect for storing seeds. Starting plants in late Winter and early Spring without grow lamps seem to be a dilemma. Last year my peach trees suffered a frost and didn’t produce a crop, but praise God I have many jars of canned peaches. We make plans and then life happens. Stay sharp and BE PREPARED.
To grow your own food you need the land but you also need the water. Large parts of eastern Colorado don’t get enough rain to grow much and surface water is already claimed by someone else. One acre per person isn’t going to make it. 10 acres might feed one cow during the summer then you better move her somewhere else in the winter. But a bigger issue is having the skills to do it. When the US went thru the depression and thru WW 2 most people had first hand experience at farming. When they were told to grow a victory garden, they could do it. Today I am sure that not one off my kids could be self sufficient and that same thing applies to 99% of their age group. Running a cash register, using a computer, or being a good salesman does not translate to being a good farmer. The weeding, watering, and recognising when the crop is in trouble because of pests, disease, or just wrong conditions must be learned over a period of several years.
When the system breaks down and food isn’t available on the grocery store shelf, I am afraid we will see a large die off in this nation.
My daughter says ” You plant the seed you water the seed if you don’t water the seed it goes dormant”. I am a master gardener and I am writing a book for her with this particular area. I can only hope it helps because I won’t always be around to show her.
My grandfather fed a family 5 farming on a his city lot in Germany during ww2. He refused to join the nazi party and consequently lost his job and denied any food assistance. Grow it, raise it, beg for it, steal it or die was the choices.
Only one of my brood I’m not sure about farming well, but he’s proficient in a hundred other ways. Not too worried. I’m old enough it may not matter about me but I potentially could live another 25 years in a not too strenuous peace time. But I know things, and do things. That may give me a decent chance.
I hate the Socialist Marxist tendancies I’m observing. I’m not anxious to be dictated to, nor locked up, nor robbed, by the supposed servants of the voting public. I be truely hate what I’m observing.
E, your comment about your grandfather reinforces my position, people in that generation had the drive and the skills to survive. We have lost that in the last 2 to 3 generations. Too many now alive would not know where to begin to do what your grandfather did. I believe you when you say he did it on one lot, but across all of America it wont average out that way. Too many out there need the information this site provides and they need to start practicing.
There is no food crisis, stop with the right wing fear mongering scare tactics of the right.
Of course there’s no food crisis…..
They’re not growing anything anymore they’re printing it. Or making it in a lab.
I can see it’s already working on you Lisa Blake. Making you the smart one
I learned from grandma 1876-1970. Mom 1904-2000. And Dad 1907-1990. They lived through the Spanish Flu, WWI. The Great Depression and WWII. Each in a different place and somewhat different ways but all were gardeners and were raised on farms.
You realize that you don’t really own your land… you are just leasing it from the government!
Don’t pay your taxes (lease payment) for a couple of years and se3e who owns the land!
Good morning good afternoon and good evening. Boys and girls let’s call this exactly what it is the monsters of the Id. Well, it’s not the monsters in our head, but the monsters in theirs. There is never ever a shortage of anything. Or tends of thousands of years. Humans have adapted in overcome. Shortages is created by a governmental body of some form, somewhere to control the rest of us and make themselves seem important. Adapting and overcoming is what they fear the most.
There now saying there are now another 15000 headed up to the southern border.
And Abet has had enough .
They had better bring in the united states Marines and cut them off.
and send them packing,
And there coming in from all over the world, dropping them off in the southern tip.
But how are they coming in, By ship or plan, They need to be stop at the Mexican Boarder
before they ever reach our boarder, .
And MR joe wants to limit the freedom of the American workers who have enjoyed flexability of not working full time as well forcing employers to cut jobs.
Who in gods name would want this man like him for president,? ????????????????
Every thing to destroy our people ,and our country,
Don’t these dumb people that back him know that this will affect them also,
To limit us to a 3rd world country, TRMUP 2024 Trump2024 Trump2024 Trump2024 Trump2024
Simple , Do you like how Biden is Running our country.
Or did you like how President Trump ran our country.
Before you mark your ballot Take a moment to think a bout this.
Your vote will de side if we will be a 3rd world country.
And drive this country in to sure POVERTY
People who read left wing media published news and spend hours on hours watching ticktock have no clue of what’s happening. I have friends and family that are like this. I pay close attention to the water crisis, inflation, and world events that can create supply chain issues. These are just a few of the problems leading to a food crisis. I am an avid gardener and stockpile food as necessary. Good luck to those that think everything is fine out there.
ITS time we start up the xl Pipe line and the key stone.
To hell with the DEMS
There out to take our country to the cutter.
Lets become the Americans we were under Trump.
This is our country,
And we all together have the power to do this.
There is more of us then there are of them.
Taking back the rights of the American people.
UNITED WE STAND. .
More and more are getting on the Trump train.
Drill baby drill, , AMERICAN FREEDOM.
AMERICA FIRST by MERLE HAGGERERD
We need to have radio station start play this song and more like them.
A country boy can servive . In America Brooks and Dunn . Charlie Danials Long haired country boy , , I think they know what I am taking about .
Standing for our country, , No one is going to take over our country or take our guns .
Or our god given American FREEDOMS
We do not want to have to fight , But if pushed us , We dam sure will.
Let us shed a little light on the amount of land it takes to support one person it is much definitely less than 1 acre a person in zone 8B where I live could seriously take a plot 100 by 100 ft and feed himself now how that would work in upstate Minnesota could be quite different but here you can garden nearly year round and have plenty of food the primary problem in homesteading people are convinced they have to have animals first of all animals are a pain in the ass and except for chickens they rarely can be managed on small tracts but 5 or 10 chickens is just what you need if you have a small lot to grow on chickens will give you meat they will give you eggs and they will give you their poop for fertilizer but even they are serious pain in the back side to grow feed and protect secondly is people think they have to have a mansion on a homestead forget the animals except for the chickens and live in a tent or whatever you have to do grow food you can eat raw and remember it’s easier to protect a small lot versus acreage I wish all of you the very best in the coming horror my neighbor’s son has just been notified today he’s being deployed to Poland within the next 10 days keep him in your prayers he has a newborn at home that’s less than 2 months old best wishes to all
Your comment is confusing. Please learn how to use periods.
I love my country , Like any other true blooded American.
and every day I see I see how there working to destroy it .
I am among many pissed off Americans ,
UNITED WE STAND. USA USA USA USA
TRUMP 2024
It is Time to
Plan, Protect , educate, get ready
Stand , Prepare, speak up , your community is at risk
prepare with evidence so the week , money lovers will have no excuse
Truth, evidence , true facts , and educated facts so they have no excuse
when it happens , they will use what ever will follow to create the agenda , world control
stamp out resistance, stop yu from having a real mind, real brain, real way of thinking
independence
yes fear tatics , yes coorcen , yes extortion , yes bribary , what ever it takes for themselves to be in charge \ like biden, harris, shift, shumer, pelosy
read about rev the 4 horsemen of the appocolupse
The last part written is the most important. Be self-sufficient now! Make gardening and farming mistakes now while there are no problems. Do not think you can wait for a crisis to happen and immediately be Joe Green Thumb Farmer. Produce and store as a normal activity your whole life. It is good for you, good for your budget, and normal when the rest of the word is not.